Cave Art #2 - Engraved Deer from Les Combarelles, France

Here are some questions to use for leading a discussion about the "Engraved Deer" cave art from Les Combarelles, France from about 30, 000 years ago.



This is not a drawing but a carving or engraving into the cave wall.

• Can you think of some examples of modern day carvings like this?
• cemetery headstones, initials on metal jewelry, images on coins, anything else?
• How are they done? –Do machines do the engraving?
• How did this artist scrape or carve those lines into the cave wall?
• What did the artist use for a carving tool? (The stone scraping tool must have been harder than the cave wall stone.)
• What would you use?
• Did the artist do a good job? Why do you think so?
• How did the artist from about 30,000 years ago before there were any machines, no electricity, not even metal, do that?
• They used hard flintstone, which they had chipped into a sharp edge, to scrape and carve into the softer limestone.
• Does it look real?
• What do you think of the antlers? Aren’t they beautiful and graceful?

What is the deer doing?

I have to tell you about a conversation I had years ago with a class. A student asked me what those light marks were down at the bottom of the picture. I replied that I thought it was just the color of the rock. The student replied, “It looks like water.” I explained that I didn’t think so because I thought the water was over where the reindeer was sticking its tongue out. Another student spoke up and said, “I know what he’s talking about. I see it, too. It looks like the reindeer is standing in water.” I decide to join the class to get a better look at what they were talking about. When I joined them and looked at the print from a distance I could see what they meant. I was very excited. “You’re right! It does look like it’s standing in water, not just next to it.” A third student added, “And that might explain that line at the top of his leg. He’s standing in water up to there.” I told the class that I had been very puzzled by that line because I kept reading how perfect cave art was, that there were never any cross-outs or mark-overs. Yet, I couldn’t explain that heavy line right there cutting through the leg nearest us. But if the water came up to there, that would be the water line. This would explain why the closer leg shows more clearly and the leg on the other side fades away. If it were being viewed through water, we would have difficulty seeing it clearly. The artist had suggested this very artistically. I told the class that they had made a very important discovery because there was no book to turn to, no expert to explain this. Yet, they had discovered and explained it. I was so grateful that they had the confidence to continue to observe and express themselves to me, despite the fact that I had not agreed with them, and that I had listened.